Monday, December 8, 2014

The tipster who tipped me said it was due to "lease issues." When the mainstream media followed up on the news, they discovered that staffers were let go, Smith's was done, but management wasn't talking. No one would--or could--reveal why the bar was closing.

Sign removed weeks ago--photo by Davy Mack

Patrons jammed the place for a last hurrah. The bar shuttered and we watched while the beautiful, old neon sign was ripped down. Many of us figured that demolition would soon follow.

But something else is happening here.

On a recent walk by, I found a pair of workers putting the sign back into place, its chrome restored to a perfect shine.

The red backing has also been replaced. And it looks like neon tubes are going in next.

I don't know what we're getting here--plain old renovation or upscale re-do with so-called "homage"--but it looks like, one way or another, we might not have lost Smith's Bar after all.

Help Us #SaveNYC

"Jeremiah's Vanishing New York has become the go-to hub for those who lament New York's loss of character." --Crain's

"Jeremiah Moss does an excellent job of cataloging all that’s constantly being sacrificed to the god of rising rents." --Hugo Lindgren, New York Times Magazine

"No one takes stock of New York's changes with the same mixture of snark, sorrow, poeticism, and lyric wit as Jeremiah Moss... Even as the changes he's cataloging break our hearts a little, it's that kind of lovely, precise writing that makes Moss's blog essential reading." --Village Voice, Best of NY

“Jeremiah Moss…is the defender of all the undistinguished hunks of masonry that lend the streets their rhythm.” --Justin Davidson, New York Magazine

"One of the most thorough and pugnacious chroniclers of New York’s blandification." --The Atlantic, Citylab